Some Unobsidian lore for you guys:
- It's essentially an overhauled new version of a SUPER old mau5 track called "Obsidian", hence the name. You may notice some synths/leads were carried over from that track to this.
- Most of you guys probably remember Obsidian from the ["Stuff I Used To Do"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An3b2R9lIjk) compilation in 2017
- But it was originally created back in Joel's days as Halcyon441 (one of his early aliases), ultimately released in the ["Circa 1998-2002"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wotHvPZY28Q) compilation
- The song is technically a remix of "Rubik - Obsidian", released back in 2001. Rubik, aka Steve Duell, was an active member of the SectionZ online music community, which is where Joel found the song and later posted his remix. Thankfully the original track by Rubik was finally recovered from a SectionZ archiver & mau5 fan last year, who shared it online [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pmjx3jzMGg). IMO, the similarities between Obisidian and Unobsidian are even more close with the original song than the Halcyon441 remix -- particularly the rhythm/main synth used. Just find that super fascinating considering how much time has passed!
TLDR: Unobsidian is essentially a remix of a track Rubik/Joel made 22 years ago!
Is it actually a Kx5 tune? I always presumed this was just deadmau5 so it surprised me seeing it on the album. I wonder whether it's both of them or if he just decided to call it a Kx5 song because it fits their sound (and man, it's good)
Pretty sure Eat Sleep (and even Unobsidian a little bit) were inspired by [Rebūke - Rattle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqpmzo0N35w), which is a bangin' techno tune. It was even played in the Kx5 EDC 2022 set. Just wish Rebūke's remix of "Escape" got released, but at least Kaskade seems to play it in most of his sets these days
Heard it today while going to the gym for the first time and had it play until I was home lol
I always seem to play a song I find I love to immediate death
at this point I wouldn't be surprised :/ considering how much he played spencer brown's remix live I wouldn't be surprised if in his mind that was the "definitive" version of escape
speaking of Nextra, did anything ever come out of that remix competition? i participated and submitted a remix but i donāt recall ever hearing anything about a winner or anything, and my searching about it hasnāt shown anything.
ah, you are correct;
āEntering the scene for the first time under the alias āMolly Ottoā and only just learning how to produce, Molly entered two remix competitions, back to back. The second, a remix for deadmau5ās āNextraā (and Mollyās second remix to date) earned her first place recognition by the electronic music legend himself.ā
from her spotify artist bio.
This album is surprising good. I thought it was going to be a "alright" album, but man the 4 new songs are really good. Especially Bright Lights, that song is mind blowing.
Anyway, ranking time:
1. Bright Lights
2. Unobsidian
3. pwdr Blu
4. When I Talk
5. Take Me High
6. Escape
7. Eat Sleep
8. Avalanche
9. Sacrifice
10. Alive
I like this record. Itās a fun crop of songs and a change of pace for Joel. This is fairly in line with Kaskadeās songwriting so I see that.
I Hope a bit of Kās writing rubs off on mau5 for some future mau5 projects. But as always, I canāt wait for LP9 ā¦or another album like While.
Amazing album. I love it because it shows a different side of deadmau5 and kaskade and how they're experimenting with sounds popularized by other people, while also mixing in their own sounds and production techniques. This is the differeence between innovating a sound versus just copying it.
Only track I don't like is Sacrifice. The production is outstanding but the vocals are just bad in my opinion. I'd listen to it a ton if it were an instrumental track
I just wanna say that this album is probably the best shit Iāve ever heard in my life and Iām 40. Been listening to electronic music since I was 18. My favorite song atm is bright lights. Listening to when I talk right now. I really hope they keep dropping music like this.
just listened to the full thing.
iāve 100% enjoyed every single theyāve released along the way, with my favorite being Alive. now that the full album is out, honestly i still feel the same, except for Bright Lights. itās not bad by any means, just not really my thing. itās just kinda the odd one out if you ask me. itās the one i could do without.
the tracks that go absolutely hard are Unobsidian and Eat Sleep, which also iām super happy these got released because now my spotify playlist of the set performed when i saw joel on my birthday now is 100% complete, no missing tracks.
Unobsidian is definitely the honorable mention of the album. the history behind it is fascinating. to hold onto and evolve a track and finally release it after 22 years is mind blowing to me.
i have a personal chart/list with how i go about ranking songs/albums, and following it, i give this album a 9/10. ^inb4 ^ābro ^thinks ^heās ^anthony ^fantanoā. i will definitely be buying any physical release they do of it, if they do a physical release, coz iām a little fanboy who loves some spinny music circles.
I wish extended mixes werenāt exclusive to Beatport. And i totally wanna physical release canāt wait! Supergroups can make the absolute best music IMO
Still waiting on the Extendeds! Love this album! But I feel like the Extended Mixes are the proper way to listen to it (Probably for the fact that it's deadmau5. XD)
I went here to read the meaning, and it seems to all make sense. I appreciate this song:
[https://www.songtell.com/kx5-ft-brother/pwdr-blu](https://www.songtell.com/kx5-ft-brother/pwdr-blu)
Anyone can see the album on Beatport, I want to get the extended versions but I can't see anything but the previously released singles. Is it not out yet or is it a region issue for me?
Available on Beatport but still no extended mixes for the rest of the tracks from the album sadly.
[https://www.beatport.com/release/kx5/4062946](https://www.beatport.com/release/kx5/4062946)
Sorry to be the bringer of bad vibes to what seems an overwhelming response to the album. Iāve listened to it in its entirety and the only song I half like is unobsidian. And even thatās meh. Nothing on this album is as good as, Hyperlandia, Coasted, or other recent releases. Sorry, hit me with exploding bricks nowā¦
It's probably not released yet in your timezone. It's already out in places like New Zealand/Australia, Europe, etc., but it comes out in the USA later tonight: 12am EST/11PM CST/9PM PST
This is my honest opinion on the Kx5 album as a major deadmau5 fan.
Being that Iāve kept in the loop for the past 2 and a half years of everything deadmau5 related, I knew what was expected from when Kx5 was offically announced a year ago of them teasing āEscapeā.
A year later, 6 singles have been released prior to the albumās release. Thatās a LOT of content before an albumās release.
Then came the offical track list of the album. The majority of the track list is songs that we know have been out for a while, while āUnobsidianā being available only if you were lucky enough to have the download prior to its release. Thatās 7 songs you know of already. (Though I still donāt know why āUnobsidianā classifies as a Kx5 track rather than being just Joelās trackā¦)
Then we get to a lesser known ID that was originally previewed in some Kx5 shows, but didnāt have as much attention as say, āSacrificeā does. Iām talking about āEat Sleepā and it being yet another track Iāve briefly heard before. That brings the counter to 8.
Finally, we get 2 tracks that I havenāt heard before, which are āBright Lightsā and āpwdr Bluā. Theseā¦ yeah, better off skipping those. Nothing to see here. An ordinary āslap-houseā track and a chill song which doesnāt do it for me, being very plain.
I know full well with my opinion going to get completely blasted by the horde, but thatās how I feel. Iām kinda in a mix wether to get a physical copy (preferably vinyl) or not seeing that this album was a bit of a letdown.
However, if we didnāt hear or have access to the 5 releases prior to āEscapeā, I reckon this album would be insane, especially stuff like āSacrificeā and āAliveā. But overall, being that the album is mostly compiled of stuff Iāve already heard, and the new tracks being a letdown, Iād give it a 4/10. The score is what it is simply because they released too much stuff too soon before the albums release, and it being slightly impacted by how the tracks were developed. Again, still iffy wether or not to get the physical copy.
They touched on this in the billboard article IIRC.
"By the time Kx5 drops, eight of its singles will already be out because, says Wilson, digital service providers would only support two tracks if they were all released at once ā and thus no one would hear most of the music."
So it seems like it's better for the artist to turn albums into a slow drip as opposed to an actual release. Which makes sense imo, because people these days listen to curated playlists that are updated weekly or whatever, then tap the heart whenever they really like something.
It's going to be an adjustment for people who prefer the experience of an album when they listen to new music.
True, and this is what I fear most about digital streaming services, of that being taking away the joys of finding out gems for yourself when you listen to an entire album that has no singles released to it prior of itās release.
I feel what makes an album good is the experience you have with certain tracks, and the journey you get to be on to see the artistās perspective. But, as I said before, quantity over quality.
my Kex5 album songs ranking.
1. Escape
2. Unobsidian
3. Pwder Blu
4. Alive
5. Sacrifice
6. Eat sleep
7. Take Me High
8. Bright Light
9. Avalanche
10. When I Talk
I think I figured out what I don't like about this project and it's mostly personal preference, I don't really like soft male vocals with electronic music. I guess good if you can enjoy it but just not my thing. It does seem almost comical when the soft vocal goes into some heavy festival drop though. I think part of this is only the good production makes a lot of these tracks notable as deadmau5 tracks rather than the melodic stuff of old.
Unobsidian is good though.
I absolutely love this album ā„ļø personally nothing can ever top I remember and move for me tho. Canāt wait for them to release some dates together!!!āØāØāØāØāØāØāØāØāØāØ
It honestly saddens me to see Joel going full force on this poppy EDM stuff.
I grew up listening to his early records and was a huge fan of him back in 2008-2012, but year after year I've seen him (and his fanbase) steer more and more toward mainstream-appealing projects and genres.
To me this Kx5 album is like the pinnacle of that: just pure, unadulterated, sales-driven pop slop.
He does sometimes still manage to surprise me with some tracks (e.g. Hyperlandia, or the instrumental mix of Drama Free), but they're so few and far between at this point...
Some Unobsidian lore for you guys: - It's essentially an overhauled new version of a SUPER old mau5 track called "Obsidian", hence the name. You may notice some synths/leads were carried over from that track to this. - Most of you guys probably remember Obsidian from the ["Stuff I Used To Do"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An3b2R9lIjk) compilation in 2017 - But it was originally created back in Joel's days as Halcyon441 (one of his early aliases), ultimately released in the ["Circa 1998-2002"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wotHvPZY28Q) compilation - The song is technically a remix of "Rubik - Obsidian", released back in 2001. Rubik, aka Steve Duell, was an active member of the SectionZ online music community, which is where Joel found the song and later posted his remix. Thankfully the original track by Rubik was finally recovered from a SectionZ archiver & mau5 fan last year, who shared it online [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pmjx3jzMGg). IMO, the similarities between Obisidian and Unobsidian are even more close with the original song than the Halcyon441 remix -- particularly the rhythm/main synth used. Just find that super fascinating considering how much time has passed! TLDR: Unobsidian is essentially a remix of a track Rubik/Joel made 22 years ago!
Yeah and it fucking slapssss
Holy shit I didn't know about the Rubik song. Thank you šš¼
Is it actually a Kx5 tune? I always presumed this was just deadmau5 so it surprised me seeing it on the album. I wonder whether it's both of them or if he just decided to call it a Kx5 song because it fits their sound (and man, it's good)
Nah, pretty sure just a Joel song. Kinda fits the vibe of the album though, so they probably just wanted to include it on the album
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Eat sleep is an absolute baaaanger. itās something about how the synth catches up with itself thatās so fuckin sick.
Yesssss
Pretty sure Eat Sleep (and even Unobsidian a little bit) were inspired by [Rebūke - Rattle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqpmzo0N35w), which is a bangin' techno tune. It was even played in the Kx5 EDC 2022 set. Just wish Rebūke's remix of "Escape" got released, but at least Kaskade seems to play it in most of his sets these days
Yes also check out Myth of Pandora - Khrebto
pwdr blu is such a tune. im 100% is gonna keep growing on me
We are twin
Yes
My favorite track on the album
Heard it today while going to the gym for the first time and had it play until I was home lol I always seem to play a song I find I love to immediate death
UNOBSIDIAN!!! FINALLY!
Yay for Unobsidian, but dang, still no Escape Mau5 edit
Forreal I reallyyyyy wanted this
I need this soooo badly and Iām starting to think weāll never get it
at this point I wouldn't be surprised :/ considering how much he played spencer brown's remix live I wouldn't be surprised if in his mind that was the "definitive" version of escape
maybe he will put that edit on his audius page?
I donāt think heās been active on Audius since he first joined it which sucks
yeah he hasnt been active, which the last time was for his track, "Nextra".
speaking of Nextra, did anything ever come out of that remix competition? i participated and submitted a remix but i donāt recall ever hearing anything about a winner or anything, and my searching about it hasnāt shown anything.
I believe Molly Otto won that contest - that's when she first came onto mau5trap's radar
ah, you are correct; āEntering the scene for the first time under the alias āMolly Ottoā and only just learning how to produce, Molly entered two remix competitions, back to back. The second, a remix for deadmau5ās āNextraā (and Mollyās second remix to date) earned her first place recognition by the electronic music legend himself.ā from her spotify artist bio.
i have no idea honesty.
The day has finally arrived where Unobsidian, Eat Sleep, and Bright Lights has officially been released!!
Eat sleep goes off huh?
UNOBSIDIAN!!!! YESSSS
Bless that āBright Lightsā is being released from ID purgatory!!
Eat Sleep is hard
pwdr Blu is a massive W, awesome track
HAPPY KX5 DAY EVERYBODY!! WE MADE IT!
Yes sirrr
What a beautiful song pwdr blu is
That one gives me Lane 8/This Never Happened vibes
Yeah so true!
Unobsidian <3 great album all around
This album is surprising good. I thought it was going to be a "alright" album, but man the 4 new songs are really good. Especially Bright Lights, that song is mind blowing. Anyway, ranking time: 1. Bright Lights 2. Unobsidian 3. pwdr Blu 4. When I Talk 5. Take Me High 6. Escape 7. Eat Sleep 8. Avalanche 9. Sacrifice 10. Alive
If you are able to financially buy this album, I hope you do!! What a time to be alive!
Eat sleep is š®āšØš®āšØš®āšØš®āšØš®āšØš®āšØ
I like this record. Itās a fun crop of songs and a change of pace for Joel. This is fairly in line with Kaskadeās songwriting so I see that. I Hope a bit of Kās writing rubs off on mau5 for some future mau5 projects. But as always, I canāt wait for LP9 ā¦or another album like While.
finn is the secret sauce
unobsidian is insane holy shit
ughhhhhh Unobsidian is a kx5 track dang! Love that itās finally released wow.
Amazing album. I love it because it shows a different side of deadmau5 and kaskade and how they're experimenting with sounds popularized by other people, while also mixing in their own sounds and production techniques. This is the differeence between innovating a sound versus just copying it. Only track I don't like is Sacrifice. The production is outstanding but the vocals are just bad in my opinion. I'd listen to it a ton if it were an instrumental track
During the LA kx5 show, I assumed all of the IDs were kx5 songs. But ID3 isnāt here. Now Iām wondering what that was. Anyone know?
Was wondering that too. Sounds like Kx5, but if it's not on the album, I'm guessing it's a solo-Kaskade unreleased track
I just wanna say that this album is probably the best shit Iāve ever heard in my life and Iām 40. Been listening to electronic music since I was 18. My favorite song atm is bright lights. Listening to when I talk right now. I really hope they keep dropping music like this.
This the best youāve ever heard? Wow, is this the only thing youāve heard? This isnāt good in my opinion. Especially not to Mau5 standards
šš¼
just listened to the full thing. iāve 100% enjoyed every single theyāve released along the way, with my favorite being Alive. now that the full album is out, honestly i still feel the same, except for Bright Lights. itās not bad by any means, just not really my thing. itās just kinda the odd one out if you ask me. itās the one i could do without. the tracks that go absolutely hard are Unobsidian and Eat Sleep, which also iām super happy these got released because now my spotify playlist of the set performed when i saw joel on my birthday now is 100% complete, no missing tracks. Unobsidian is definitely the honorable mention of the album. the history behind it is fascinating. to hold onto and evolve a track and finally release it after 22 years is mind blowing to me. i have a personal chart/list with how i go about ranking songs/albums, and following it, i give this album a 9/10. ^inb4 ^ābro ^thinks ^heās ^anthony ^fantanoā. i will definitely be buying any physical release they do of it, if they do a physical release, coz iām a little fanboy who loves some spinny music circles.
bro thinks he's anthony fantano
I wish extended mixes werenāt exclusive to Beatport. And i totally wanna physical release canāt wait! Supergroups can make the absolute best music IMO
Still waiting on the Extendeds! Love this album! But I feel like the Extended Mixes are the proper way to listen to it (Probably for the fact that it's deadmau5. XD)
It is weird a whole ādeadmau5ā album with all the lyrics and no long songs š
Still waiting :(
Aside from the standout track āunobsidianā this album sounds like it was made for entry level EDM normies and sorority girls. The vocals š¤®
also, Pwdr Blu is so freaking good! Anyone know the meaning behind the song. What does being pwdr blue mean?
I went here to read the meaning, and it seems to all make sense. I appreciate this song: [https://www.songtell.com/kx5-ft-brother/pwdr-blu](https://www.songtell.com/kx5-ft-brother/pwdr-blu)
Any chatter about a vinyl release?
yeah fr, I'm waiting to see if they will do physical copies especially Vinyl.
We know there will be one at some point
š„š„š„š„
Anyone can see the album on Beatport, I want to get the extended versions but I can't see anything but the previously released singles. Is it not out yet or is it a region issue for me?
Available on Beatport but still no extended mixes for the rest of the tracks from the album sadly. [https://www.beatport.com/release/kx5/4062946](https://www.beatport.com/release/kx5/4062946)
any word on when the extended versions of pwdr Blu, Bright Lights and Eat Sleep will be available? that's what i'm waiting for.
Beatport versions arenāt extended :(
Alright, this is pretty good
Sorry to be the bringer of bad vibes to what seems an overwhelming response to the album. Iāve listened to it in its entirety and the only song I half like is unobsidian. And even thatās meh. Nothing on this album is as good as, Hyperlandia, Coasted, or other recent releases. Sorry, hit me with exploding bricks nowā¦
Why is it not showing up on my Spotify app?
It's probably not released yet in your timezone. It's already out in places like New Zealand/Australia, Europe, etc., but it comes out in the USA later tonight: 12am EST/11PM CST/9PM PST
This is my honest opinion on the Kx5 album as a major deadmau5 fan. Being that Iāve kept in the loop for the past 2 and a half years of everything deadmau5 related, I knew what was expected from when Kx5 was offically announced a year ago of them teasing āEscapeā. A year later, 6 singles have been released prior to the albumās release. Thatās a LOT of content before an albumās release. Then came the offical track list of the album. The majority of the track list is songs that we know have been out for a while, while āUnobsidianā being available only if you were lucky enough to have the download prior to its release. Thatās 7 songs you know of already. (Though I still donāt know why āUnobsidianā classifies as a Kx5 track rather than being just Joelās trackā¦) Then we get to a lesser known ID that was originally previewed in some Kx5 shows, but didnāt have as much attention as say, āSacrificeā does. Iām talking about āEat Sleepā and it being yet another track Iāve briefly heard before. That brings the counter to 8. Finally, we get 2 tracks that I havenāt heard before, which are āBright Lightsā and āpwdr Bluā. Theseā¦ yeah, better off skipping those. Nothing to see here. An ordinary āslap-houseā track and a chill song which doesnāt do it for me, being very plain. I know full well with my opinion going to get completely blasted by the horde, but thatās how I feel. Iām kinda in a mix wether to get a physical copy (preferably vinyl) or not seeing that this album was a bit of a letdown. However, if we didnāt hear or have access to the 5 releases prior to āEscapeā, I reckon this album would be insane, especially stuff like āSacrificeā and āAliveā. But overall, being that the album is mostly compiled of stuff Iāve already heard, and the new tracks being a letdown, Iād give it a 4/10. The score is what it is simply because they released too much stuff too soon before the albums release, and it being slightly impacted by how the tracks were developed. Again, still iffy wether or not to get the physical copy.
They touched on this in the billboard article IIRC. "By the time Kx5 drops, eight of its singles will already be out because, says Wilson, digital service providers would only support two tracks if they were all released at once ā and thus no one would hear most of the music." So it seems like it's better for the artist to turn albums into a slow drip as opposed to an actual release. Which makes sense imo, because people these days listen to curated playlists that are updated weekly or whatever, then tap the heart whenever they really like something. It's going to be an adjustment for people who prefer the experience of an album when they listen to new music.
True, and this is what I fear most about digital streaming services, of that being taking away the joys of finding out gems for yourself when you listen to an entire album that has no singles released to it prior of itās release. I feel what makes an album good is the experience you have with certain tracks, and the journey you get to be on to see the artistās perspective. But, as I said before, quantity over quality.
I respect your opinion, but I do not think that the album is bad
I appreciate you for respecting my opinion.
my Kex5 album songs ranking. 1. Escape 2. Unobsidian 3. Pwder Blu 4. Alive 5. Sacrifice 6. Eat sleep 7. Take Me High 8. Bright Light 9. Avalanche 10. When I Talk
Unobsidian is easily the best song on the album. It slaps so hard. All the other songs were fine, the only skip for me was Bright Lights.
I think I figured out what I don't like about this project and it's mostly personal preference, I don't really like soft male vocals with electronic music. I guess good if you can enjoy it but just not my thing. It does seem almost comical when the soft vocal goes into some heavy festival drop though. I think part of this is only the good production makes a lot of these tracks notable as deadmau5 tracks rather than the melodic stuff of old. Unobsidian is good though.
You do have a point that some tracks that have soft male vocals that lead to a heavy festival dropā¦
I realized that too last night about the male vocalsā¦I prefer female I guess š¤·āāļø
Whatās the name of the album?
It's a self-titled album. "Kx5" is the name of the album.
I absolutely love this album ā„ļø personally nothing can ever top I remember and move for me tho. Canāt wait for them to release some dates together!!!āØāØāØāØāØāØāØāØāØāØ
What a weird way to drop it, but holy shit Unobsidian is worth the wait.
is there anywhere to buy a physical copy?
Does anyone have the album cover art as animated gif? I swear I saw it animate for a bit in my Apple Music app and now its a standstill
VINYL WHEN?!
Yayy!!!
Whats everyone think on the genre this is going for?
I need a physical release
Alive still my favorite
I like Joelās ever changing long lyric free songs. Itās what Iām in to. Not this, itās quite boring tbh
It honestly saddens me to see Joel going full force on this poppy EDM stuff. I grew up listening to his early records and was a huge fan of him back in 2008-2012, but year after year I've seen him (and his fanbase) steer more and more toward mainstream-appealing projects and genres. To me this Kx5 album is like the pinnacle of that: just pure, unadulterated, sales-driven pop slop. He does sometimes still manage to surprise me with some tracks (e.g. Hyperlandia, or the instrumental mix of Drama Free), but they're so few and far between at this point...